If youʼre struggling to motivate your employees, Daniel Pink the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, has some ideas on how to turn your team around.

How NOT to Motivate Your Team: By using the carrot and stick approach, punishing your team for poor performance and rewarding them for a job well done.

  • The carrot and stick method IS GREAT…. for repetitive, boring, mundane tasks… but otherwise itʼs outdated.
  • If your team is always afraid of being punished or always trying to get rewarded then they will start to think there is only ONE right answer. Donʼt limit their creativity!

Carrot and Stick Approach
The Right Way to Motivate Your Team: Being honest is the most effective way to motivate your team to complete mundane tasks. Pink recommends doing the following:

  • Tell your team members that you know the task is boring, if you can be honest with them about this your team won’t get frustrated with boring tasks.
  • Tell your team how you want the task completed, having clear expectations gets the task done faster.

Through his research Pink has identified the three most important factors for increasing drive and motivation:
Autonomy: Autonomy gives your employees control over their own time. It shows you trust them and believe that they can do something great on their own.
Mastery: Give your team the opportunities they deserve to become masters of the skills your company needs.
Purpose: Your teamʼs drive will increase greatly if they know why they are working and what they are working towards. Make your mission clear.

Here is an adapatation of Daniel Pink’s presentation at RSA. He talks about his elements of drive and what REALLY motivates us.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&w=640&h=390]

The Leadership AHA!: Giving your team autonomy and motivating them to succeed is a lot more dynamic than typical carrot and stick methods of leadership. To be a successful leader you NEED to know your team members and what makes them tick, that way you can give your team autonomy, mastery and purpose.